On CVNC's Coverage of Divine Performing Arts on 12/28/08

My name is Henry Wang, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Now I am a post doctorate research associate at UNC-CH.

Although I am not an artist, as a Chinese over 30 years old with PHD degree, I think that Divine Performing Arts presents the real Chinese traditional culture. My whole family enjoyed the show very much and we believed that this show is kind of Chinese traditional culture reborn. Ten of my wife’s friends, they hugged and thanked my wife with tears after watching the show because my wife told them the show information.

I am also very surprised that Kate Dobbs Ariail’s points in this review. She seems have some preoccupied opinions on Falun Gong. The fact is that the show is hosted by NC Falun Dafa association, which is shown in their brochure. They also included their belief in the flyer, “Truthfullness, Compassion and Tolerance.”

In fact, the Chinese government banned Falun Gong, but all over the world except China, practicing Falun Gong is free. Persecution of Falun Gong in China is real and still happening now. Experiences of mine and my friends? are the best examples. Although I was a graduate student in Peking University before I came to the US, my PhD candidacy was canceled by my university in the summer of 2000. That forced me to leave my family and my home country. Until now, I could not go back. Moreover, I had been illegally detained twice in China. In order to force me to give up my belief, I had been further sent to labor camp for 18 days, just after four days of my marriage in 2001. In the labor camp, I was isolated from the outside world, brainwashed, and threatened. Even if my wife and I were in the US, I learned that my parents-in-law had been harassed continuously. One of my best friends and classmates in Peking University was secretly sent into jails for ten years because he kept practicing Falun Gong in China. I also learned that some my friends were even tortured to death.

Through Chinese classical dance, Divine Performing Arts present the truth, and many audiences told me that they were enriched, uplifted and enlightened, they got touched inside.

Ms. Kate Dobbs Ariail seems have some misunderstanding on Falun Gong, and so this review will mislead readers.